Pay Attention to Details – But Don’t Micro Manage!
In General, Powell’s Terms “Vigilance in Detail”
Many people in leadership roles, especially those in a high-level leadership position, want to be the ‘visionary’ and leave the details to others. After all visionary is exciting and rewarding, bringing praise and complimentary feedback. If the leader leaves the details to subordinates, the result is often failure. How many leaders protect their self with, “they just won’t implement my plans”. Such attitude and blame-game antics Is not leadership.
Like so many of the issues related to effective leadership, attention to detail is a balancing act. The leader MUST be involved or at least aware of the details of any new initiative, program or project. To do less is to invite a high probability of failure.
The leader removed from the activity of the organization is caught by total surprise of any undesirable situation. No surprise must always be the goal. No Surprise is more likely to be achieved when the leader is involved. We have all heard the question put to top level leaders about their role. “Are you committed to quality”? Or “Are you committed to this new training program”? Or some related question. My position has always been that the leader can only answer in the affirmative. The problem is not the answer; the problem is this is the wrong question. The question should always be “Are you involved in…” whatever the issue is.
Leaders that are not involved lack ownership, they also lack awareness and how, when or where their intervention is needed. Subordinates are often reluctant to take issues to the boss. This brings about a breakdown in communication and the leader is often the last to know when things are not going as expected. Often when these types of culture exist, by the time the leader finds out that something is wrong it may be too late to make the needed corrections, or the corrections may be very expensive at this point.
Early in my career I worked for a superintendent that was totally involved in the operation of his area of responsibility. Mike, did not micro manage anyone, but he was thoroughly involved in every aspect of his area of responsibility. On a daily basis, he would tour his department talking to many operators, supervisors, engineers, inspectors, material handlers, etc. He was always casual but at the same time supportive. His questions were always around the topic.
- What do you need?
- How can we make this operation better?
- What would you change?
- What could we do better?
Asking these type questions allowed Mike to gather first hand information about the “TRUE” condition of his area of responsibility. People learned early and quickly that when you told Mike a better way or what you needed to get the job done. He paid attention, things changed, tools were provided, and equipment was repaired and/or modified. Innovation was the tool improvement was the goal! At the same time, Mike held everyone responsible for his or her job. Whether it was machine operators, supervisors, engineers, etc., Mike knew their job, their responsibility, their requirements, their deliverables and he expected them to perform.
It is noted again that attention to detail is not micro management, over controlling or second-guessing nor is it an excuse for ‘analysis-paralysis’. The leader must take care to strike the proper balance and become involved, at the same time giving subordinates the tools, support and guidance needed to get their work done.
Attention to detail is often grueling unglamorous work that brings the proper level of understanding to the leader.
The effective leader not only pays attention to detail but develops an environment that allows or causes others to also pay attention to detail.
About two decades ago I was assigned as a quality resource for a large organization. To say this organization was having quality problems was not merely an understatement it would have been an under simplification of the magnitude of their problems. While there were many initiatives taken by people in multiple roles. One of the steps I took was to begin to provide quality information to the right people at the right time. To accomplish this I created a report that detailed the source (causing individual) of incorrect builds that occurred on the previous shift. This information went to the department head, the line supervisor, the team leader and was communicated to the individual. I will not say it was particularly easy to get this process set up, but once it was in place the rate of improvement was astounding. The timely quality information gave the proper leaders and operators the detail information they needed to understand what had happen, why it had happened and how it was corrected. As this process of communication of detailed information grew and strengthened it was no longer possible for anyone in the organization to ‘resort to finger-pointing’ as a defense, blaming some other person, shift or team, now we had the proper detail in the proper hands at the proper time. The result was a rate of improvement that I have not seen repeated since. All I did was provide the information. I did not provide the method of correction, improvement or change. Once the proper people had the proper information, the proper outcome was inevitable.
Balance – Balance – Balance
“The leader must find the proper center of gravity between; detail, big picture, analysis and delegation.”
The balance can be found by paying attention to what is happening. If you (leader) are not seeing proper rate of implementation or improvement you can be sure your level of detail involvement is insufficient. As you make this self-analysis pay attention to the demeanor of your organization, are you frustrating them with micro-management or analysis-paralysis? Are you allowing subordinates and peers to ‘carry-their-own-weight’, people want to do a good job, people want to feel they are value added. If the leader carries all the burden the subordinates won’t have ownership or involvement, thus they will not contribute to their maximum capability.
Powell Principles (by Oren Harari)
- Master the details before and during the launch of a major project or campaign.
- Use your mastery of details for great decisions and great execution.
- Stay in touch with the “little” things.
- Avoid “analysis paralysis”
- Remember that discipline in details is discipline in strategy.
There are three books I recommend as reading to everyone that is interested in understanding the principles of leadership.
- The Leadership Secrets of Colin Powell by *Oren Harari
- The Powel Principles by *Oren Harari
- It Worked For Me – In Life and Leadership by “Colin Powell”
Please talk with your peers and see if they would benefit from this series. If you think they may, please send them to the web site www.mbcincorp.com they may download the free white paper and be automatically signed up to receive all future leadership articles and quality tips.
Thanks to All
Bill Martin – President
MBC, Inc.
